Day One Ft Lauderdale to Miami
The adventure began today. We would have preferred to wait until the weekend, when the forecast is much better, but we left today to go south around Key West, up the Gulf Coast, and into Alabama. While we didn’t have any rain, the wind speed averaged 27 gusting to 32. The waves were supposed to be 5 to 7 feet, but some were 10-12 feet, hitting the windows of the salon. Our speed was 4.9 to 7 knots with two reefs in for part of the way. The wind was out of the east and it was a rough, bumpy ride. I took some pictures, but nothing did it justice.
We left New River Marina at 6:45. We had two draw bridges to go under and they don’t open between 7:30 and 9:00 for rush hour traffic. We also wanted to make the 17th Street Causeway bridge for their 7:30 opening but missed it and got under at 8:00. They open on the hour and half hour. The first two pictures above show the view back into the Intracoastal Waterway and going under the bridge open above us at 17th Street.
The wind was very strong where we usually hoist the main sail, just past the bridge. We went up the ICW a short distance to do that and further tighten the dinghy on the davits. Then, we were on our way out into the ocean. We went down the channel, passing two commercial vessels and were heading south at 9:08.
Our plan for today was to get to No Name Harbor which is just past Miami. We arrived there at 3:15.
We rode our dinghy ashore and walked Daisy. There is a park and a restaurant here as well. It’s a very nice, protected place to anchor out and costs $15 a night.
